Glossary Term

CEC (Central Electronics Complex)

The core physical server enclosure housing the processors, memory, and system planar for a Power server.

Definition

The CEC is the physical heart of a Power server, the enclosure holding the processor modules, system memory, and core electronics that everything else attaches to. When buyers discuss server capacity, they are ultimately talking about what the CEC can hold and how much of that capacity is currently activated.

CEC specifications differ by model and generation, which is why a feature code compatible with one CEC is often not compatible with another.

Example

Two servers with the same model number but different CEC configurations can have very different maximum memory and processor capacity.